I scanned the apartment to make sure we were alone but when I saw the blood on the bedroom doorframe, rage boiled up. “What do I want?” I walked to the door, looked at the blood then swung my glare back to Randy. “I want a lot of things.”
“Pick a fight, say what you’re gonna say, I don’t give a shit. Do what you gotta do and get the fuck out. I got company coming over.” He chugged his beer then set it next to five other empty bottles.
Ruthless, calculated, I smiled. “Glad you moved on.” Then I dropped the pretense. “Because she’s not comin’ back.”
Quicker than I thought he was capable of, he was on his feet, throwing me against the wall. “I’ve loved that girl since she was fifteen years old!” He crushed an arm across my chest. “Fifteen.”
He stunk like beer and sweat and desperation and I wanted to pound my fist into his face. “You knife every woman you love?”
He roared in pain and rage then stepped back. “It was a fucking accident. I swear to God. I would never hurt her.” His hands gripped his greasy hair.
I didn’t have a single ounce of sympathy for him. I grabbed his neck with one hand and crushed his windpipe. “Here’s how this is gonna work.”
His hands grabbed mine as his eyes started to pop.
I squeezed tighter and leaned forward. “You come near her again, you’re dead. You touch me again? I’ll do to you want you did to her—tenfold.” I threw him back on the couch and walked to the door.
“I smell her on you.” His voice cracked.
“How’s it feel to lose everythin’?” I asked, remorseless.
“You fuck her?”
I was on him so fast, he didn’t know what hit him. One hand on his throat, an arm across his chest and a knee on his thigh, I watched the fear register in his eyes with satisfaction. “You stab your woman and that’s what you’re fuckin’ worried about? Where my dick’s been?” I picked him up and threw him on the floor.
He rolled to his hands and knees.
“Get up,” I barked.
“I’ll kill you.” He started to stand.
I kicked him in the ribs. “How’s that feel?”
No fight in him, the fucking pussy cowered.
Lowering my voice to pure menace, I bent toward him. “Should I slam your face into the doorframe?”
Holding his stomach, he started to crawl.
“How ’bout I break your arm?” I asked with deadly calm.
The front door swung open. “I warned you I needed him at the shop,” a deep, familiar voice boomed.
I TURNED MY COLD, CALCULATING stare toward Candle. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have given me his address.”
Candle closed the door behind him as his shrewd eyes scanned the room. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Candle,” Randy said weakly.
“Get up,” Candle ordered, disgust in his voice.
“But he cracked my rib,” Randy protested.
“I don’t give a shit if he broke them all. When you let someone into your home and he gets the jump on you, you deserve what you got coming.”
“What kind of Sergeant-at-Arms are you?” Randy whined.
“The practical kind. Get the fuck up.”
Clutching his ribs, using the couch for support, Randy pulled himself up and stood.
Candle glanced at me. “You two done here?”
I glared at Randy. “That depends.”
Randy tried to sneer. “He’s done.”
I swung out and made a solid connection with Randy’s jaw. His head snapped back and he fell onto the couch. “I’ll say when I’m done.”
Candle looked at me with a bored expression. “You good?”
I crossed my arms. “For now.”
Candle tipped his chin at Randy. “Show up at work tomorrow.”
Randy spat blood on the already stained carpet and grunted.
Candle aimed his washed-out blue eyes at me. “I need to talk to you. Outside.” He turned toward the door. “Pick up your fucking place, Carter. It looks like shit.”
Following Candle, I knocked the bong to the floor then crushed the glass with one stomp of my boot. “This was my last friendly visit,” I warned Randy. I pulled the door shut and walked toward Candle’s Harley. “What’s up?”
Candle leaned against his bike and sized me up. “Hope you know what you’re doing.”
I thought of Siren on my couch. “That’s debatable.”
He slowly nodded. “Word is, you’re solid.”
“Don’t know where you heard that.” I glanced around to see if we were alone.
“I hear a lot.”
“Like?” It was quiet, almost too quiet for an apartment building.